Since I thought it was a really cool little story, I discussed ways of making it available with my UK publishers, Simon & Schuster, and they ended up printing a limited supply of paperbacks, which were given away for free with a magazine called SFX. (You can probably still find copies if you look hard enough online -- maybe sites like eBay or Abebooks or Alibris.) To make it more widely accessible, it was then released in an eBook-only edition, in both the UK and USA, and you can buy it through the Amazon stores -- CLICK HERE TO BUY ON AMAZON UK or CLICK HERE TO BY ON AMAZON USA. I think it's also available through other eBook sellers. It's a grisly, very darkly comedic little number, that I had lots of fun writing -- and White Hart Lane (the old Tottenham Hotspur stadium) features prominently in it. Not that you need to be a Spurs fan to enjoy it -- I think even if you're a supporter of a rival team (like Arsenal or West Ham) you'll get a kick out of this one, as football doesn't factor into it at all -- instead it imagines what a football stadium might be like if a psychotic clown erected a circus tent in the middle of a football pitch, packed it with zombies, then put on a show...

Enjoy -- and if you happen to know anyone who is part iof the World Book Day team who choose which books to publish each year, please feel free to draw their attention to this, shake your head sadly, and tell them, "This is what you could have had!!!"

I went to see the movie of Stephen King's IT last month. (Well, the first half of it, anyway, assuming that they do make the second half.) A very competent, creepy and enjoyable take on it, not as powerful as the book (which is possibly my favourite out of all of his novels) but it comes closer to his magic than the vast majority of his film adaptations have over the years. Pennywise the clown is, of course, the key villain of the piece, and is captured chillingly in the new version. Pennywise was the main inspiration for Mr Dowling in my Zom-B books. I was being driven between events many years ago by a bookseller in Ireland, whose surname was Dowling, and we were chatting about our shared love of horror. She said that clowns really freaked her out, especially Pennywise, and I chuckled and began to riff on King's creation, coming up with a nightmarish clown of my own, which I happily described to her in great detail as she drove me along -- I love nothing more than a captive audience! I quite liked what I came up with, and said that one day I would find a book in which to feature my creepy clown, and in her honour, I would name him after her. It took me a few years to find a suitable story, but I'm a man of my word, so when I did, I slipped him into the narrative as swiftly as I could. And the rest is clowning history.

THWACK!

I'm amazed and honoured every time someone gets a tattoo based on characters or story lines or designs from my books, and it's always a pleasure to share photos of them with you on Tattoo Tuesday (which is a feature I run on my Facebook page most weeks). But I'm particularly pleased with this offering, submitted by a fan called Jeremy, because it's based on my favourite book out of all the books I've ever written -- The Thin Executioner. As I've often said at events when chatting with fans, if I could only keep one book out of everything I've ever written, it would be The Thin Executioner. I'm not saying it's the best thing I've ever written (though it's pretty damn good, even if I do say so myself!), just that it's the piece of work that means the most to me, and that touched me the deepest. Thwack!!!!!

If you'd like to have a look at other Darren Shan-inpired tattoos, visit my Facebook page and scroll down through my older posts, looking for Tattoo Tuesday entries.

K J AMIDON

The above post was written by an author called K J Amidon. No writer stands by themself. We're all the product of dozens and hundreds of other authors, whose works inspire us to go on and try writing our own stories. So it's always a sweet day when one of your fans grows up and makes a breakthrough of their own -- and doubly sweet when they acknowledge you as an influence! I've attached a photo of the letter that I wrote back to K J when she sent me a copy of Into Oblivion, and here's a link to the book on Amazon: CLICK HERE It's the first in a series, and the second book has just gone on sale too.

To follow K J on Instagram, CLICK HERE

Rest Of World draw -- Roland Szabo, Hungary.

There was a really good response to this one -- I had nearly 800 entries, which is three or four times the norm for the Shanville Monthly competitions -- I guess the allure of a complete, signed set of Zom-B books proved too hard to resist!  Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter, congratulations to the winners, and regrets to the rest of you -- better luck next time!! Speaking of which...

I'm running a competition to link in with Halloween, and I'm offering up an exciting smorgasbord of prizes for the lucky winners.

First prize will be a set of publisher's proofs of Brothers To The Death, which was book 4 of The Saga Of Larten Crepsley. These proofs were sent to me by my UK editor at HarperCollins ahead of the book's release, to check that everything looked the way it should. No one else in the world will have this! I've given away a few sets of proofs as prizes over the last year, but I think this is the last set that I have to offer, so this will be your final chance to win one for a very long time (if ever). The winner will also get a few treats from Taiwan, which were produced by my Taiwanese publishers, Crown, to help promote sales of my Demonata series. They include a Demonata-themed board game (it's on a sheet of paper, not an actual board), a pop-out piece of Demonata art presentation, a Demonata CD (I'm not sure what's on it) and some Demonata character trading cards. All of these were only ever available in Taiwan as giveaways, and I imagine they're almost impossible to find even in Taiwan now, so, y'know, your chances of ever being in a position to get your hands on them again in the future are pretty much nil -- so seize your chance while you can!!

Second prize will be a complete set of the Taiwanese giveaways, i.e. board game, art presentation, CD and trading cards.

Third, fourth and fifth prize winners will each get the Taiwanese CD and trading cards.

I have signed all of the prizes.

1) Answer this question: "What was the title of book 4 of The Saga Of Larten Crepsley?"

2 Send your entry to: [email protected]

3) Put your NAME in the SUBJECT BOX when you send your e-mail -- I will not accept your entry if you don't. And make sure you INCLUDE YOUR FULL POSTAL ADDRESS in the body of the e-mail, as well as the answer. This is so that I can easily send your prize to you if you win.

(4) Closing date is midnight, UK Time, Wednesday, October 11th, 2017.

(5) This competition is open to everybody, everywhere in the world, unless you work for one of my publishers or are one of my relations.

(6) You can only enter the competition ONCE. If you try to enter more than once, ALL of your entries will be disqualified.

(7) Only one entry per household -- if you send in more than one entry, ALL of your entries will be rejected. If more than one person in a house wants to enter, you'll need to make a joint entry.

(8) The draw for the winners will be made on or after Thursday, October 12th, 2017. It will be a completely random draw, made by Darren Shan personally (I use an online number generator to pick the winners). I will try to notify the winners by e-mail, and will post their names in the Shanville Monthly, and on Facebook too.

(9) Information submitted by entrants WILL NOT be shared by me with any other individual or company.

(10) My decision will be final.